A founder’s weekly finance review: cash, collections, and commitments

Check reconciled or otherwise verified available balances, expected processor releases, and important pending payments. Identify restricted funds separately. The review should show what can be used for the week's obligations.

Compare actual cash with the previous forecast and explain the largest differences. A short review becomes useful when it corrects the assumptions behind the next payment decision.

Look at the receipts that materially affect cash, including their due dates and evidence. Confirm large customer promises and investigate unapplied payments before escalating an overdue balance.

Separate invoiced amounts from opportunities that have not closed. A founder's confidence in a sale should remain recognizable as an assumption until the relevant evidence exists.

Include payroll, taxes, debt, essential vendors, stock purchases, and annual renewals. Identify approvals or documents still needed. Check whether any payment depends on a receipt whose timing is uncertain.

For illustration, a $25,000 customer payment expected Friday may not cover Thursday payroll. Dates matter even when the week's total receipts exceed its total payments.

Choose issues with near-term cash, compliance, customer, or reporting impact. Assign an owner and next action. Do not turn the weekly review into a second monthly close.

Keep accounting judgments with the appropriate reviewer and legal or tax issues with the relevant specialist. The founder's role is to ensure decisions and ownership are clear.

Write the approved payments, collection actions, spending changes, and assumptions to watch. Update the cash forecast and share the relevant tasks with their owners.

At the next review, check what happened. Retain a brief history of significant decisions rather than a long meeting transcript. The routine should leave the founder able to explain the next cash constraint and the team able to act without reconstructing the discussion.